Bad one is ORACLE_HOME = /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.3/dbhome_1 since the HOME does not exists.

Wait a minute, how is it possible the HOME does not exists and where did Goldengate get this information ???

Let’s find the installation log.

/u01/app/oraInventory/logs> grep "MANAGER_PORT" installActions2016*.log|uniq
installActions2016-05-09_04-57-53PM.log:INFO: Setting value for the property:MANAGER_PORT in the bean:OGGInstallSettings
installActions2016-05-09_04-57-53PM.log: MANAGER_PORT 7809
installActions2016-05-09_04-57-53PM.log: MANAGER_PORT 7809
installActions2016-05-09_04-57-53PM.log:INFO: adding the variable MANAGER_PORT to command line args table
installActions2016-05-09_04-57-53PM.log:INFO: Setting variable 'MANAGER_PORT' to '7809'. Received the value from the command line.
installActions2016-05-09_04-57-53PM.log:INFO: This variable MANAGER_PORT is not added to the global context map
/u01/app/oraInventory/logs> grep DATABASE_HOME installActions2016-05-09_04-57-53PM.log
INFO: Setting value for the property:DATABASE_HOME in the bean:OGGInstallSettings
DATABASE_HOME /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.3/dbhome_1
DATABASE_HOME /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.3/dbhome_1
INFO: adding the variable DATABASE_HOME to command line args table
INFO: Setting variable 'DATABASE_HOME' to '/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.3/dbhome_1'. Received the value from the command line.
INFO: This variable DATABASE_HOME is not added to the global context map

There it is, Goldengate is using ORACLE_HOME defined from the installation.

DATABASE_LOCATION is not required, so why set it?

Admittedly, I have have been setting DATABASE_LOCATION but will not be doing so any more.

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Specify the location of the Oracle Database.
# Required only if START_MANAGER is true.
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DATABASE_LOCATION=

Lastly, I have not attempted to reproduce the error. Too lazy. May be you can help?